[akots]

I must agree to a certain extent with Kingreno here. Civ4 is a pretty dull game overall imho. It plays very similar to 5CC in Civ3 to a certain time point. Once you are past this point, it does not matter, since the game should be pretty much already won. On the other hand, 5CC is rather winnable on Deity level in Civ3 and AI in Civ4 is not stronger. It has more bonuses though, both declared and hidden. That makes the game somewhat less attractive and more routine while indeed it is somewhat easier to win imho. But this is a rather personal opinion formed so far based on about a dozen games, some finished and some abandoned. The way the patching process goes, there is essentially a new game to be learned after every patch.